District Dispatch VOLUME 23, ISSUE 10 APRIL, 2013 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: District April is... 2 Conference April 19-20 ...an exciting month for Rotary! The daylight is longer and spirits are lifted from the winter months. Club Presidents are finishing up their year with attention to the details of ongoing South Korea 3 projects and Presidents-Elect are preparing for their turn in office GSE Team starting July 2013. District 6310 4 Preparations are almost complete to host all of you at the GSE Team to District Conference April 19-20 in Alpena. I hope you have registered South Korea by now! The Group Study Exchange team from South Korea is in the District and making the rounds Around the 5 to many clubs. Rotarians are doing a great job greeting, learning, and hosting the team. Jim District and I will see them at the Conference! New Mem- 6 Remember that our Group Study Exchange leader John Zimmerman along with four non- bers this Rotarians have traveled to District 3680 in South Korea to begin their exchange. Keep them in Rotary Year your thoughts as they are hosted by fellow Rotarians. You will want them to come to your club sometime as a program to share their experiences. Why not ask? 7 The deadline for Presidential Citations was 31 March. Half of the Rotary Clubs in the District qualified! Impressive!!! Awards will be acknowledged at the Conference. Thank you, Frankenmuth 8 Rotarians, for your remarkable work in your community and around the world. Bicycle Tour Rotary Leadership Institute is being held in OUR District on Saturday 27 April at the Polio Plus 9 CMU campus. This means that you can come to learn more about Rotary for the day for $70; and not need to stay overnight. We are part of this Institute to keep learning. If you are the Calendar 9 President-Elect and have not yet attended Part I, this is a perfect time to enhance your learning and support your upcoming role as President. If you’ve completed Part I, how about enrolling in Part II? The goal would be for clubs to have two Rotarians attend every year! The more we learn about Rotary, the more we will want to stay! Finally, this month is Magazine Month. Do you know how many magazines are published by Rotary International—International Published Magazines in hard copy or online? Submit your list to Connie at [email protected] or [email protected], and you will be part of this month’s drawing! Until we meet again, let’s see what we can do for Rotary! DG Georgene VOLUME 23, ISSUE 10 P A G E 2 It’s APRIL! That means it is almost time for The District Conference in Alpena! Is your calendar marked?—April 19-20, 2013! Just in case you haven’t registered yet, we remind you that you can certainly still register on line by going to: clubrunner.ca/Portal/Home.aspx?accountid=2167 (Clubrunner.ca- Rotary Club of Alpena) Print-out registration forms are also available. We also want everyone to know that there are now rooms available at ALL hotels, including the Holiday Inn. If you haven’t registered yet, we hope you will reconsider. We, in Alpena, have been working overtime lately to be sure we will present a wonderful conference for you, full of education, excitement, and lots of fun. And, of course, you have the opportunity to spend time with so many great people from our District. If you go to our Clubrunner Site, clubrunner.ca/Portal/Home.aspx?accountid=, you can download the schedule for the conference. There you will the see great programming being planned. We are hearing that the community baskets being pre- pared for our auction are really incredible! What a fun way to learn more about our region’s communities! You don’t want to miss this. For those of you who have already registered, a packet of information has been sent to you by mail. If you haven’t received it, please call Joanne at the phone number below. We are looking forward to seeing you all and to enjoying the friendship through Rotary. See you in Alpena, April 19-20, 2013! To contact us, please call 989-657-2427 or email our conference chair, Joanne Gallagher, at [email protected]. VOLUME 23, ISSUE 10 P A G E 3 Seek Cultural Exchange Opportunities to Give Peace a Chance By Rob Clark (pictures and article reprinted from mlive 4/12/13 On July 18, 1963, President John F. Kennedy, in a speech to a group of American Field Service students, said cultural exchanges between people of different nations, provides "some hope for peace" in the world. I recently went back and read that speech and was moved by how Kennedy's words still ring true today. This past week, my family had the honor of welcoming a houseguest from South Korea named Seong-wook Choi. He is here as part of a Rotary International Group Study Exchange team. The five-member team arrived in Michigan on March 30 with visits planned in Midland, Bay City, Pinconning, Frankenmuth and Saginaw, among other cities. Traditional south Korean drum routine performed The team is made up mostly of young business professionals who immerse at the Bay City Noon Rotary Club themselves into American culture for one month before returning home. Team members typically live with host families at each stop on the tour and spend their days taking part in vocational visits at local companies, as well as attending events and simply hanging out with the locals. The program truly is an "exchange" as a similar group of young Americans currently is in South Korea. This was the third time my family has hosted a team member from a foreign country. We've also welcomed guests from Thailand and Senegal, who remain as friends to this day. One day, I hope that I am fortunate to visit them again in their countries. There are many cultural exchange programs and opportunities to interact with people from other parts of the world. The key is to find those opportunities and then take advantage of them. I believe every American student should take part in some kind of cultural ex- change — either as a host or as an outbound visitor to another country — before they graduate from high school. Just imagine what something like that would do for world peace and understanding. Just this week I learned more about South Korea than I ever knew before, including how our visitors feel about North Korea. I heard traditional South Korean music for the first time in my life; became fascinated with the city of Daejong, which has a population of 1.5 million people and is considered a hotbed for scientific and technological discovery; and was reminded that although we may live on opposite Seong-wook Choi, an international affairs and invest- sides of the world, there are threads of common concern and interest that unite all ment division employee for the city of Daejeon, South people. Korea, poses on Thursday, April 11, with Rob Clark, editor of The Bay City Times and The Saginaw News for MLive Media Group, at the Doubletree hotel and President Kennedy touched on this idea near the end of his remarks on that conference center in downtown Bay City. day in 1963, saying to those in attendance visiting from other countries: “… When you go home you will not be a friend of the United States but rather a friend of peace, Courtesy Photo a friend of all people; that you will desire to see good will among all nations.” Fifty years later, as I look at the giant peace sign that hangs on the front door of my home, I hope many others have an opportunity to experience what I have through cultural exchanges. If they do, then peace truly does have a chance. VOLUME 23, ISSUE 10 P A G E 4 Local Professionals Travel to South Korea By Stephanie Wirtz Some local professionals are about to experience the trip of a lifetime. The Rotary International Foundation and District 6310 are sending a delegation of five members to South Korea to learn about their respective vocations as well as cultural education. Team Leader, John Zimmerman, is a member of the Midland Rotary Club and represents the International Curling Fellowship of Rotarians. Zimmerman is retired from the United Way of Midland County. The team accompanying Zimmerman includes Kim McMahan of Midland, Monique Scott of Midland, Nate Payovich of St. Louis, and Stephanie Wirtz of Saginaw. McMahan is the founder and director of Adams School Culture Club and is also an elementary Spanish teacher at Adams Elementary School. Scott is a secondary special education teacher at Midland High School. Payovich serves as the assistant director of student opportunity, academic support and disability services for Alma College. Wirtz serves as the outdoor recrea- tion and event coordinator for Saginaw County Parks and Recreation Commission. The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women in their initial years of professional life. Rotary districts in different countries are paired to send and receive professional study groups of four to six non-Rotarian team members and one Rotarian team leader to travel for four to six weeks, staying in the homes of Rotarians when possible. A delegation of members from South Korea will be exploring the culture in Michigan while the Michigan team is in South Korea.